Chapter Nine #3
And perhaps he heard it too, because his lips moved to my jaw and his hands ghosted along the same paths they’d explored that night, trailing goosebumps up the backs of my thighs with a touch that was so assured, all too knowing.
Like he remembered precisely how to touch me, the right pressure, where to kiss me to make me come undone. He was entirely in control.
And that… wasn’t what I wanted.
It took some effort to rouse my body from its utter lapse of autonomy; it was as though each muscle had yielded, entirely content to let him light every nerve ending on fire, let his clever fingers and soft, coarse mouth coax me into a needy, raging inferno.
My magic hissed when I grabbed at his wrists, a jolt of anger crackling through the flames when he immediately froze at my halting touch.
“Are you alright?”
His eyes dropped to my chest where my magic was thrashing furiously, flares of firelight lashing out between my ribs like the claws of some ravenous beast. His brow creased, concern etched into every deepening line as he drew back, but I held firm to his wrists and leaned in until our mouths touched.
I spoke softly, so every word brushed my lips over his in minute, absentminded kisses.
“It’s not fair.”
“What’s not fair?”
I pulled back and flattened a hand to his chest, watched that slight crease of distress flicker uncertainly between his brows.
Watched it fade and his eyes fall shut as my hand dragged slowly down his shirtfront, one finger tracing the long divot at the centre of his stomach through the fabric. He licked his lips.
“Tell me. I’ll make it fair.”
The discordant flickering in my ribs calmed as my Flame seemed to realise he wasn’t going anywhere, that I hadn’t pushed him away.
It rushed into my hands and he drew the most deliciously sharp gasp as my heated fingertips curled around his waistband, brushing curious flame against the bare skin of his hip.
“Just that you have a headstart. You’ve seen me all vulnerable. Made me moan your name–”
His rough breath of laughter cut me off, and he caught me by the chin to force my eyes from his straining hardness to his equally hard gaze.
“You think I haven’t had your name in my mouth every night since we met?”
A hot shiver ran up my spine and exploded in a heady, humid fog that eclipsed my every thought. I wished my voice was firmer, less needy and pleading when I spoke my next words.
“I want to hear it.”
His eyes did not soften as he leaned in and kissed me, tongue roughly parting my lips and claiming my mouth in long, suggestive strokes before he pulled back and spoke against my lips.
“Then get on your knees.”
Something burst in my chest with an almost audible pop, and when gold lined Caelan’s vibrant green eyes, I knew the heat that flooded my body had lit me up from the inside out.
His hand was cool on my overheated skin when he stepped back and dragged me to my feet, only to watch through hooded eyes as I dropped to my knees.
Every inch of my skin was smouldering under that gaze, blazing heat moving through me like a rising tide.
“Look at you,” he said, smirking.
I watched him unbuckle his belt and draw it slowly through the loops.
The sound of the leather snapping free made my thighs clench involuntarily, slick heat spreading with the movement.
He dropped the belt, but my eyes were fixed on his other hand, mesmerized as he traced the shape of himself through his trousers.
My palms twitched with the need to reach out and touch him, but when I rose on my knees he gave the softest click of his tongue and reached out with his free hand to caress my cheek.
“Not yet. Not when I can see exactly what this is doing to you. So fucking beautiful, glowing just for me.”
He undid the clasp of his trousers and rolled them down painfully slow, just past his hips, until I could see coarse curls and a broad bulge that teased the base of his erection.
My tongue went heavy in my mouth. I think I whimpered when he finally drew out his perfect, thick cock and wrapped his fingers tight around it.
I wanted to touch him so badly my thighs ached from the pressure of clenching them together.
I stared up at him and whatever expression I wore had him grinning; a little laboured, like it was an effort to spare the attention to such gestures.
Caelan teased the length of his cock with his fingertips, then gripped himself in one long stroke that I swore I felt in a desperate throb between my own thighs. He reached out to take my face in his hand, thumb pressing into my bottom lip.
“Open your mouth for me, Rosie.”
It fell open on an eager gasp, and I licked at the pad of his thumb without prompting, delighting in the slight hiss I drew from him. His eyes darkened as he looked down at me, still slowly fisting his length in one hand, the other smoothing up my jaw, fingers spreading in my hair.
“Stick out your tongue. More.”
I did as he said, heat pooling in my core at his gentle demand, that soft, low voice. His grip on my hair twisted gently, and it was with that same deliberate slowness that he slid his cock over my tongue, inch by inch until he touched the back of my throat, lingering just a moment until I gagged.
He groaned, then pulled back just as slowly, gliding his hard length down the same path, letting me taste every inch of him. When his glazed eyes focused on my face, his lips twitched up in a breathless laugh.
“You like that?”
A whimper rose in my throat, but I couldn’t speak, didn’t want him to stop for my answer, to interrupt his desperate, panting gasps at the crest of every thrust.
“Gods, I love it when you blush.” His grip on my hair tightened. “Suck.”
It should have been embarrassing, how readily I obeyed his one-word order, but I was too far gone to even comprehend the word shame.
Not as I greedily wrapped my lips and hand around him.
Not as I swirled my tongue over his tip and felt his groan of pleasure strike through me like a lightning bolt, the building flutter below my navel suddenly pulsing and sharp with need.
I worked my hand faster, desperate to draw out more of those deep, wanting sounds, sucking as though I could swallow him whole.
I’d done this plenty of times before, even enjoyed it for the most part, but gods, it had never been like this.
The pulse between my legs was so strong I wondered for the first time in my life if I could come from the taste of another’s pleasure.
“This smart fucking mouth,” he said, rough and low before he smirked. “Knew it could do more than snark at me.”
I don’t know if it was punishment or reward for that comment, but it was certainly in response when I took him so deep I felt my eyes water, his hips twitching beneath my hands as he bottomed out and my lips pressed to his coarse hair for one moment before I had to pull back, both of us breathing hard, my saliva dripping from him like his own spend soon would.
“Fuck,” he rasped.
I looked up at him then – and felt a pinch in my chest so tight the pain of it breached my Flame.
I’d expected his eyes to be hooded, shaded with lust, and they were – I just hadn’t expected them to be soft, too.
Awed. His broad chest heaving, mouth parted in wonder as he stared down at me, and his fingers traced my jaw; not guiding me back to the rigid length still poised at my lips, not demanding anything.
Just a soft, affectionate touch, just a moment of connection that felt far more intimate than his cock sliding over my tongue.
My Flame calmed all at once, stilled within me as though it shared in that same awe.
One long fiery note of longing rang through my veins.
And panic clawed at me.
I shot to my feet, so fast the vanity rattled against the wall, though I wasn’t sure which of us had stumbled into it.
I had the briefest glimpse of Caelan’s confused frown before I kissed him, my lips so hard against his it took him a moment to catch up.
His shirt hung loose over his waist, and I tugged at it with clumsy, fumbling hands until he took it from me and pulled it over his head.
That was all it took for the agitated buzzing in my head to quiet, for my Flame to slam into me once more, lighting up the contours of his body in my firelight.
Some primal, possessive part of me thrilled at the sight of him bathed in my light. His chest heaved with desire for me, my glow filled the hollows between each defined muscle, firelight stroking from the width of his shoulders to the vee of his hips, and lower still.
Mine, said the unfamiliar voice within, and my Flame roared in agreement.
Caelan was still as a hunter before his prey, his only movement the heave of his breath and the slow, deliberate trail of his vivid green eyes over the front of my dress, where my breasts had noticeably peaked.
“Come here, Rosie,” he said, each word raking up his hoarse throat and down the length of my spine.
That unknown voice inside me gave a feral little mewl before I shut it out and went on trembling legs, letting him catch me by my hem and drag me to him.
He relieved me of my dress, lifting it over my head before catching my face in both hands and claiming my mouth with a slow, devouring sweep of his tongue.
Between his kiss and the heat of the Flame that now spiralled down my arms, I was so dizzy I had to catch at his shoulders for any hope of staying upright.
That moment of stability didn’t last long when he lifted me into his arms, both of us gasping into our kiss when my legs went around his waist, perfectly aligning him with the wet heat of my core.
He kept himself pressed to my centre as he knelt on the bed, but I whined at the loss of him when he lay me down and pulled back. He shushed me, low and soothing.